Eulogy for Joseph Barron Hopper by his brother-in-law Dr. G. Thomson Brown.   Read More

In the late 1970s, the Presbyterian Church in America began the consider what would become an invitation to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod to be organically joined and received with the PCA. The RPCES would join the PCA in 1982.

A few years ago, I came across a pamphlet from 1979 at pcahistory.org that included the map below of how the PCA, OPC, and RPCES were geographically distributed at the time.

This geographically is inextricably linked to the history of these three denominations; it is interesting to consider how this distribution developed, and how it has evolved in the last 40 years.

I’ve run the Twitter account @pres_history for the last 5 years. I mostly use it to tweet posts from Today in OPC History and This Day in Presbyterian History, but I occasionally share other things I’m discovering and questions I’m asking.

Since Twitter tends to be ephimeral, I compiled a list of question I’ve asked over the last 3 years; most of them I still don’t have answers for.

• What are good sources on this history of church music in American presbyterianism?
• What was the first hymnal to include the Westminster Confession in the back?
• Who was the first PCUSA General Assembly moderator that wasn’t of Scottish descent?
• What seminary did the Associated Reformed Church have in 1796? (It was in NYC.)
• Is there demographic research on the ecclesiastical affiliations of Scots who migrated to Ulster in the 17th century?
• Does anyone know of a list of RPCES ministers who were received into the PCA?
• What was the relationship of Francis Makemie and the Church of Scotland?
• Can anyone recommend sources on the history of Canadian presbyterianism?
• Does anyone know anything about J. Gresham Machen’s study guide to Galatians?
• Is there a reliable source for membership numbers of American presbyterianism prior to 1925?
• What are good sources on the debates over Isaac Watts’ hymnal in presbyterian churches in the American South?
• Is there a good source on the history of the publication of the red Trinity Hymnal somewhere? .
• Is anyone aware of any historical research on early American churches meeting in brush arbors?
• Starting to put together a timeline of the theonomy movement from the 70s to 90s. What are the key events? And what are the best sources on this topic?`
• Are you aware of other historical (vs polemical) sources on the topic of political dessent in the RPCNA (beyond the RPCNA Synod Minutes)?
• I’m interested in the history of Presbyterianism in York County, SC. If anyone knows of good resources please pass them along.
• I’ve been trying to find biographical information on early Free Church of Scotland minister John G. Lorimer with 0 success. If anyone has any tips, please let me know.
• If anyone has ideas of how to get access to Machen’s articles from the PCUSA “The Presbyterian” magazine, I’m all ears.
• What is a good source on understanding the 17th century struggles over church government and worship in the Church of England? With answers!
• What was the relationship between the 17th-century Ulster presbyteries and the Church of Scotland?
• What are the best sources on they history of the Covenanter and Seceder churches in America?

Names of the ministers who formed the first general assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church   Read More

A godly wife is edified and comforted in her death by the ministry of John Knox.   Read More

My edited and newly typeset version of John G. Lorimer’s work The Deaconship is now available in paperback on Amazon. Lorimer was a Church of Scotland minister who joined the Free Church of Scotland when it formed in 1843.

The book includes a forward from Dr. C. Nick Willborn of Covenant PCA in Oak Ridge, TN:

​This little book also sets forth practical good the office can accomplish when rightly distinguished from the office of elder and fully honored through the recognition of and ordination of biblically qualified men. In this area, his work is reminiscent of Samuel Miller’s work on the eldership, especially in his chapter on the distinction between elders and deacons. Although the historical contexts in which Miller and Lorimer wrote are somewhat different, the astute reader will soon realize the abiding benefit this little book can be for the church today due to its historical and biblical faithfulness. With all this in mind, it is a worthy study for students, elders and deacons who love the church as Christ’s beloved bride and wish to serve her faithfully.

The impact of the Spanish Flu on the Southern Presbyterian Church   Read More

From Darryl Hart and John Muether’s 1997 article entitled “J. G. Machen and the Regulative Principle”:

Machen [in 1926] opposed Presbyterian support for Prohibition, however, not because he approved of drunkenness or preferred unpopularity. Rather he did so for important theological–even Reformed–reasons. In a statement defending his position (never published again because of the damage his friends believed it would have done) Machen argued that the church had no legitimate rationale for taking a side in this political question. Aside from the question of the relations between church and state, he believed that the church was bound by the Word of God and so all of its declarations and resolutions had to have clear Scriptural warrant. The Bible did not, however, provide support for Prohibition. It taught the idea of temperance, that is, moderate consumption of alcohol and the other good things of God’s creation. This meant that Scripture forbade inebriation. But even here the Bible did not give directions to government officials for abolishing drunkenness. Should this be a matter for the federal government to regulate or should states and local governments? Was legislation the best way to shape public sentiment or was an educational program more effective? Was regulation of private citizens’ behavior even a proper concern of the state? The Bible did not answer these and various other questions. So, Machen concluded, the church had no business meddling in the politics of Prohibition or any other matter where Scripture did not speak.

Read the full article here.

The most recent issue of the OPC magazine New Horizons features an article by historian and OPC ruling elder D.G. Hart entitled Machen’s Magazines.

Harts starts, “To claim that the Orthodox Presbyterian Church would not exist if not for a magazine is a bit of a stretch but has enough proximity to historical circumstances to be plausible.” He goes on to discuss The Presbyterian, Christianity Today, The Presbyterian, and New Horizons, each of which were used to inform “ordinary readers about the details and significance of the church struggle.”

Read the whole article for yourself.

In 2001, liberal Anglican theologian Norman Pittenger provided the Princeton Seminary Bulletin with some of his memories of his youth in Princeton, NJ where he was born in 1905. Nick Batzig noted Pittenger included his memories of J. Gresham Machen:

My increasing acquaintance with Seminary students, coupled with my newspaper connections, made it natural for me to take an interest in, and write news reports about, the controversy in Presbyterianism (especially at the Seminary) between a very conservative and a more or less “liberal” theology. (I thought it a very mild variety of liberalism.) And so I got to know Dr. Machen personally. He was kind to me, polite and cooperative. I thought him a charming, vigorous, traditional but kindly man. I can remember only one somewhat biting comment he made: the reason “liberal Protestants” were so much concerned with ethics—to the exclusion of a deep theological interest—was that they had nothing much else to believe in!

Immediately after this period I decided to go ahead with my plan to enter the Episcopal Church ministry, and I planned to go to General Seminary in New York. Just then I had a visit, at my parents’ home, from Dr. Machen. How he discovered that I had these plans I do not know, but I was deeply moved when he appeared, asked to see me, and then sat and talked with me for a few minutes on our veranda. I recall especially, and have always been grateful for, his closing remark as he said farewell: “My best wishes to you, my young friend—and may you prosper!” His thoughtfulness made me understand why so many students in the Seminary adored him. I think that one may say that of all the faculty there at that time, J. Gresham Machen was the most loved and most influential, both with those who followed his conservative line and with those who disagreed with his position but loved the man—his generosity of spirit to students, his ready hospitality to them in his rooms in Alexander Hall, and his genuine and deep piety.

This reminds me of Pearl Buck’s memories of Machen’s courtesy.